


#OlicitySpotting: Ubud, Bali

by CJ_fics



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, OlicitySpotting, outside perspective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-09
Updated: 2015-09-09
Packaged: 2018-04-19 22:16:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4763030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CJ_fics/pseuds/CJ_fics
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dewi Densario spots a beautiful couple in Ubud, Bali as she tapes a segment for her culinary show.</p>
<p>EDIT: A Bahasa Indonesian speaker corrected some of the terms. So I'm editing based on their corrections. Thank you for the comment, by the way!</p>
            </blockquote>





	#OlicitySpotting: Ubud, Bali

With a bracing deep breath that turns into a large smile, Dewi Densario  steps out of the van the production company had provided her into front of Bebek Bengil.

This is her first real shot at culinary stardom, she knows.

After running a catering business for five years, someone finally “discovered” her and offered her her own cooking show. At first, she had pitched a simple enough idea: her cooking traditional Indonesian dishes in her home. A younger, Indonesian version of Nigella Lawson or Rachel Ray.

But the network wanted to go bigger. A travel slash culinary show where she would travel across Southeast Asia, tasting well-loved cuisine from a range of popular restaurants and hole-in-the-wall eateries in the region. They also offered her a show that was to be shown to an international audience. Instead of being the Asian Nigella, they offered her the spot of being the Asian Anthony Bourdain.

She had been excited but scared at the prospect. So, she had negotiated to start small by exploring her country’s cuisine first. She was familiar with the culinary universe of Indonesia, after all, having been born and raised in Indonesian archipelago.

The network agreed, fortunately. There was enough to explore in Indonesia cuisine given the size of the country and the variety of ethnic and indigenous groups.

So, her show, “Dewi Discovers [Insert name of city]” was born. The plan was simple, select a city and explore its culinary offerings by going to the most loved eateries in it. Dewi had insisted to have a practical spin on the show, to not have everything too staged, and to go to the restaurants when they were open for the public. That would allow her the opportunity to talk to other diners and get their perspective on what’s good on the menu. Of course, she would have one-on-one time with the head chef to learn how to make their house specials.

Today, she’s shooting her first segment and she’s chosen Bebek Bengil in Jalan Hanoman in Ubud, Bali as her location.

The head waiter greets her as she steps into the restaurant, “ _Mba Dewi, selamat datang di Bebek Bengil_ ,” he says, welcoming her.

“ _Terimah kasi, Pak_ ,” she greets, thanking him with a bow.

Glancing around the restaurant, her nerves return.

As expected, the restaurant is packed. It almost always is. It’s a well-known eatery in Ubud, not just for the quality of its food but for the magnificent view of the rice paddies the restaurant afforded its guests.

She smiles at the head waiter and looks for her crew and her camera man. At his signal, she begins talking, “Well, we’re here in Bebek Bengil. Or more well known as the Dirty Duck Diner in English. But don’t let that turn you away from this place. The duck – _bebek_ or _itik_ – in this place is not only clean but delicious. You can see how busy this restaurant is. This is the typical lunch time crowd in this place.”

“Here we have Pak Aryo, the head waiter,” she motions to the older man, “Who will take us to where we will eat.”

As she walks into the restaurant, smiling at the other diners, a mix of locals and foreigners, she continues speaking, “One of the things that I love most about this place is their _pondok_. It’s a raised bamboo hut that overlooks the rice paddies that Ubud is known for.”

Pak Aryo leads her to the _pondok_ that’s been reserved for her. It’s the one that was farthest from the main restaurant.

“Look at that view!” she says sweeping her hand to show the camera the impressive rice paddy system that’s been built on the mountains of Ubud. “This is quintessentially Southeast Asian, the mountain rice paddies. There are rice paddies all over the region. In Thailand, in the Phiippines, and Indonesia, indigenous, mountain-dwelling, communities have found a way to plant and grow rice the mountain slopes by carving out terraces where the staple food can be grown. Systems like this one that we see here have been around way before the industrial age – which means this rice paddy system was built by hand and through hard labour. Impressive, isn’t it.”

“And cut!” her director, Pak Yosi, calls out.

Dewi allows herself a deep breath and an imaginary pat on her own back as Pak Yosi says, “Good job, Dewi! In one take, too!”

“Thanks, Pak,” she smiles back at him.

“You can relax for a bit, the production assistants are talking to some of the diners to be interviewed after you try the food here,” Pak Yosi says, “And Pak Aryo will be bringing the sample dishes soon. So, have a seat. Do you need anything? Water? Coffee?”

“I’m good,” she says as she takes a seat in one of the cushions along the long table at the centre of the _pondok_.

“All right, I’ll be back soon,” Pak Yosi says, “I need to take some footage of the place.”

As her director leaves, Dewi takes out her phone to take a few shots of the view. It really was a thing of beauty.

She looks around her, observing the other diners encased in their own _pondok_. Across from her, she spots a foreign couple that looked vaguely familiar.

_Or_ , she thinks to herself, _it maybe because they look like movie stars_.

As much as she tries to dismiss them and look at the rest of the crowd eating in the restaurant, her gaze always manages to fall on them.

Seated on the cushions like she was, their arms wrapped around each other as they gaze at the rice paddy fields she had been waxing poetic about just a few minutes ago.

The guy, who had light brown hair and a scruff – that would have usually made another man look unkempt and messy (totally not Dewi’s type of guy) but on him made him look rugged and manly – on a square jaw. From her viewpoint, she could see he had slanted eyebrows that framed light-coloured eyes and a straight nose. He was wearing a blue polo shirt that made his shoulders look wide and his arms, gargantuan as he lounges back with an arm stretched on the railing and another around the woman he was with.

The female half of the pair was tiny, especially compared to him. Medium-sized by Asian standards, but quite tiny as far as Western standards are concerned. She had shoulder-length blonde hair and bright lips. As she smiled, at her boyfriend – _husband?_ Dewi mused – Dewi spots dimples on her cheeks. She wore glasses and striped blue hoodie that looked too big on her. Dewi concludes that the sweater to belonged to her boyfriend or husband.

Dewi smiles as she sees the guy nuzzle the woman’s ears, apparently whispering something as the woman responds with a laugh and light slap to his chest.

_They’re adorable_ , Dewi thinks.

“Who’s got your attention?” Pak Yosi asks as he slides in across where she’s seated, “Your meal’s coming soon, by the way.”

Dewi tilts her chin towards the couple.

“Oh, beautiful couple,” Pak Yosi observes after he takes a glance behind to his side.

“Maybe they can be one of the people we can interview for this segment?” Dewi suggests.

“No can do,” Pak Yosi says, “The P.A.s have asked everyone here, if they can be interviewed, and we already have a list of people who have agreed. They’re not on it. Don’t worry, we have another foreign couple to interview.”

“Maybe we can try?” Dewi insists, “They look like an interesting pair.”

“It doesn’t hurt that he’s gorgeous, right?” Pak Yosi teases before waving one of the production assistants over.

“Yes, Pak?” one of the two production assistants says as she walks towards them, “Anything I can do for you?”

“Tika, are you sure you can’t that couple’s permission to be interviewed?” Pak Yosi asks nodding towards the pair.

“Oh, no,” Tika says with trepidation, “They really don’t want to be interviewed. He said that they were on vacation and would like their privacy. We don’t even have consent to film them.”

Pak Yosi looks at Dewi with a shrug, “No permission, no interview.”

Dewi sighs.

“Honeymooning couples are a dime a dozen in Bali,” Pak Yosi reminds her.

“I know, but they look interesting,” Dewi says in a dreamy manner before turning to Tika, “Did they give you a hard time when you asked them to be interviewed?”

“No, not really, Mba Dewi,” Tika responds, “He was a bit grumpy about maintaining their privacy but she was very friendly. She mostly spoke for them. She was insistent about not being caught on camera though, but she was nice about it.”

“Are they celebrities or something?” Dewi asks, “They look very familiar.”

“I don’t think they are,” Tika says.

Pak Yosi takes another look at the couple who had just been served coffee. After a few seconds, he says, “Oh! I know who they are!”

“Who?” Dewi and Tika ask in unison.

“The guy’s Oliver Queen!” Pak Yosi announces in a low voice, “You know the one who was shipwrecked about eight years ago, and came back alive. He’s some kind of billionaire or something.”

“Oh, right!” Tika says, “He looks much better in person, and that’s saying something – he looks very handsome on TV.”

“Right, and I suppose that’s his girlfriend,” Dewi says, “She’s very pretty.”

“He used to date models,” Pak Yosi responds with a chuckle. With a final glance at the couple, he stands up and motions Tika to follow him, “Let’s go see what’s holding up the food Dewi’s going to sample.”

Dewi glances back at the couple who are still holding each other in their arms as they enjoy their coffee. She takes out her phone to search for “Oliver Queen”.

One of the first few results was the hash-tag #OlicitySpotting. Curious, she clicks on it and gets an entry from Urban Dictionary about what it meant. It was the abbreviated nomenclature for the couple, Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak. Apparently, ever since they were seen together in Baker City, Oregon, lots more people took photos of them in different cities and towns in the United States.

_But they’re not in the United States now, aren’t they_ , Dewi thinks.

Dewi clicks more pictures from the meme. Most of the shots were taken without the couple’s knowledge, and all of them had the couple in some kind of clinch, always with their arms around each other and looking at the other as if the world didn’t exist. There were some that made Dewi feel like a voyeur with the two of them eyeing each other with happiness, love and lust.

_They’re really beautiful_ , she thinks.

She closes the browser on her phone and second guesses, if she should participate in the #OlicitySpotting meme. This was the first time anyone would participate from outside the United States.

Looking at the couple again, Dewi sees that their arms had tightened around each other with Oliver’s face buried in Felicity’s neck as he nuzzled her with his nose. She had her eyes closed with a small grin on her face.

Dewi makes a decision and takes a photo. She vows to think about posting the photo up online after she finishes this segment of “Dewi Discovers Bali”.

/end

Some translation from my very basic Bahasa:

_Mba Dewi, selamat datang di Bebek Bengil_ – Welcome to Bebek Bengil, Ms. Dewi.

_Terimah kasi, Pak_ – Thank you, sir.

_Pak –_ This is the way to address older men respectfully. Equivalent to sir. For younger men, you use “Mas” which means brother.

_Mba_ – This is the way to address younger women respectfully. For older women, you use Ibu, which means mother.

**Author's Note:**

> Original post here: http://outoftheclosetshipper.tumblr.com/post/128705918748/olicityspotting-ubud-bali


End file.
